Representative image CHENNAI: Three weeks ago, doctors at a clinic in Mogappair told Rani Menon that all her 10-year-old daughter Sriya M, who had complaints of high temperature and body pain, needed was a paracetamol and rest. Two days, later when she fell unconscious, the clinic recommended her to a private hospital, where she was diagnosed with dengue. The fifth-grader spent the next 10 days in the intensive care unit, where doctors pumped her with heavy doses of antibiotics.

With one death and 4,654 cases dengue cases being recorded since January 2017 in the state, doctors say timely care can help patients and prevent spread of the disease. After a meeting of district heads on Tuesday, public health authorities decided to begin fever death audits, similar to the ones for maternal and infant mortalities. "Doctors will soon have to report a death that had fever as one of the symptoms to the state health department as soon as they issue death declaration notes. If the state finds that treatment given by the doctor was inadequate, action would be initiated against the treating doctor," said public health director Dr K Kolandaswamy.

The aim is to ensure transparency in reporting deaths due to communicable diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, jaundice, typhoid, and malaria, and find chinks in the system, besides improving standards of care across the state. An expert committee will conduct weekly audits in every district and public health officials will hold monthly audits at the Directorate of Public Health, Chennai. "We found that most deaths could have been avoided if the delay in treatment was minimised. Either the patient visits the hospital late or the doctor delays," said state health secretary J Radhakrishnan.

While the state is planning to launch an online reporting system for all cases of infectious diseases, the fever death audit will help examine the causes of death. The audit team will categorise deaths in three groups — death due to non-infectious diseases (fever due to pneumonia, blood poisoning or hospital acquired infections), high risk group (those with low immunity) and healthy individuals who died of communicable disease. "Fever is a symptom for most infectious diseases. Our aim to rule out infection when any one has fever," said the director of public health Dr K Kolandaswamy.

On Thursday, officials sent out an "advisory for the rational and scientific management of fever cases" to minimise mortalities, which said all fever cases should be treated as per WHO protocol. Action would be taken in case of any lapses. The protocol advises doctors to admit all patients who have co-morbid conditions or serious warning signs to a higher centre of care.

The state has opened non–emergency lines 102 and 104 for suggestions, queries and complaints.

With immense pride “India Live” celebrated its 10th national conference in Mumbai from 28th February to 3rd March 2019. The conference turned out to be a gold mine of information, with emphasis on academics, education and exchange of knowledge with leaders in interventional cardiology from both India and abroad.